Daylight

4 - Secrets

I sent an instant message to mom and dad telling them that I would be spending the night in the medical dorms. There was no way that I could learn about all of this and then go home, and have a normal dinner with my parents. They would grill me with questions about my first day that I couldn't answer, even though all I wanted to do was tell them... so badly. Not to mention, there would be a zero percent chance of me actually getting any sleep tonight. At least this way if I'm awake then I can keep researching. It's better than staring up at my ceiling for 6 hours.

This virus has been around for a little while, but it was kept so under wraps that no one even knew. The few in the Compound who got it were those who worked with the livestock, so they came to the conclusion that it came from the morphed animals beyond the wall. No one had been successfully treated for HAZE, and the few that died had their cause of death listed as pretty much anything else as to not arouse suspicion.

After properly exhausting all my files, I noticed that the sky outside my window had darkened. I should probably take a break for dinner at some point, but I really wanted to meet up with my team. I sent a quick message to Kate asking where everyone was, and she quickly replied with a room number.

I had no idea where this room would be... I was hoping she would come and get me to take me there but I guess they had a lot to do. I peaked down a few halls, the room numbers were getting bigger which was good. At least I was headed in the right direction.

I lightly knocked on a large white door, I had double checked the number twice to make sure it matched the number Kate had messaged me. I stepped back as the door slid open to allow me inside. My team was sitting at a large conference table, surrounded by Holos. Kate waved me over, and gestured to the free seat next to her. I was grateful for the kind interaction, because I probably would have remained frozen in the doorway like a scared child had she not. This was all still incredibly intimidating.

I definitely still felt out of the loop. They were each working on a different project while I just sat and watched. I had no idea how long it had been before a gentleman cleared his throat from across the table, which caught my attention.

He stood from the table and walked towards me, extending his hand. I quickly sprung up out of my seat to shake it.

"My name is Dr. Highland; would you like a tour? Kate always forgets to show people around. She's all about throwing them right into a project." He had a friendly smile. Dr. Highland looked like he was in his thirties, he had a full head of dirty blonde hair and definitely kept in shape. He stood more than a head taller than me, and had a very confident aura about him.

"Hi, yes that would be great actually." He nodded at me to follow him out of the doors, leaving the rest of the team behind to continue their work. "I'm Mila by the way, Mila Hale." I can't believe I forgot to tell him my name. I'm sure he probably already knew it, but still I should have led with that.

"Dr. Mila Hale" He corrected me with a smile. That was the first time I heard my title. I was kind of insane how the Compound can just assigns titles. Not that I'm not educated enough to have gotten it by myself, but it was still weird to hear it out loud.

He showed me around our floor, the dorms, the research labs, the surgical rooms, and the restricted morgue. He mentioned that no general patients were housed on floor nine, but they did have a couple rooms for emergency purposes.

He means HAZE patients, I thought to myself. Those were definitely the only ones who were brought to floor nine.

After my tour was done, he brought me to the learning labs. There were other newly assigned people in the labs already, but I didn't recognize any of them. They must be designated to other floors. I did have a few tests I needed to pass before I was allowed to legitimately practice with my team.